Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has launched at President Muhammadu Buhari and Godwin Emefiele over the lingering Naira scarcity.
Ganduje questioned why Buhari and Emefiele did not propose the programme seven years earlier and claimed that the CBN could have put it into effect following the 2023 general elections.
On February 15, 2023, the governor gave a speech to the Forum of Former Parliamentarians, North-West zone, in which he discussed the CBN’s contentious cash swap programme.
He said: “What is wrong with doing it after elections? Why didn’t he do this in the past seven years? What is the meaning of all these? This CBN governor is not a politician, he doesn’t know anything about politics. How can a politician enjoy this policy? Imagine how as a leader you watch banks engulfed by fire, if not that the democracy has decayed, will that be possible? he asked.
“How is it possible when the World Bank said the policy is wrong, IMF said it is wrong, other leaders said it is wrong, but you said you need seven days to think over it? The poor man selling vegetables will have his goods rotten.
“That is why I close down one supermarket for rejecting the old notes. The Supreme court has said the old notes are still legal tender, that is why any bank that refuses to collect, I will revoke their certificate, and if I do that they cannot work.”
This is coming a few days after Ganduje claimed the implementation of the naira swap policy was a deliberate act by Emefiele to cause confusion in upcoming elections.
